The Bugs Bunny version of reality

One of the old gags in the Warner Brothers cartoon would have the nominal hero, Bugs Bunny or the road-runner, out on the end of a tree limb with a saw. Upon cutting through the limb, instead of falling, the tree would fall, leaving the pursuer out of luck.

Reality doesn't work that way.

 I ponder this as I consider the western Democratic Republic which has been bequeathed to us. The mid-to-late 20th century America in which so many of us grew up was a place of historically unrivaled wealth and freedom. A place in which people were free to advocate for nearly any position that might interest them. And so, many have chosen positions and issues on which to fight for change, for "progress." For gay marriage, and universal health care, and extreme environmental preservation, for increased redistribution of the wealth, and government support for the indigent, and strict gun control, and the cradle-to-grave welfare state.

But what if traditional marriage, and the freedom to get rich, and the financial incentives that encouraged women to marry before having children, and the fear that failing to work would result in dying in a gutter, and the right to arm yourself to protect yourself, what if those are all the foundation of the free and wealthy society? What happens when the foundation is eroded, cut away, piece by piece? In the long run, if we cut off the branch we're on, the branch will fall...